


Names

by possiblyobsessed



Series: IronDad and SpiderSon + the Avengers + Ignoring Infinity War [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-12 12:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15995465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblyobsessed/pseuds/possiblyobsessed
Summary: Sometimes it's hard to have a world famous, billionaire, superhero as your father figure. Just ask Peter Parker.Or5 times Peter almost calls Tony dad and 1 time he does (kind of)





	1. 1

Tony Stark was by no means a father, or a father figure. At least he had never seen himself to be. Because in the genius’ mind he just wasn’t the paternal type, he didn’t care enough, he wasn’t kind enough, and he wasn’t a good person. He had certainly never imagined that someone else, and a child at that, would make their way into his inner circle – and he was content with just having Pepper, Rhodey and Happy.

That was before he met Peter Parker of course. Peter had single handedly done what no other had and taken down Tony’s walls at incredible speeds and found his place in Tony’s heart and life. The kid was like a parasite the way he’d wormed his way into Tony’s heart. Except that was possibly the worst way to describe Peter. He was far too cute to be a parasite. Far too kind and pure to be a parasite, because it was almost painfully obvious just from how he looked at Tony he wasn’t trying to use or live off him. Maybe that was the reason, the way the kid looked at him with his big brown eyes and naivety making Tony feel more like a hero than he had in a long time.

(He knew of course that this wasn’t the reason, the kid was just too. Damn. Perfect.)

Peter Parker had never expected to meet Tony Stark. Iron Man. And then he had. Peter had never expected Iron Man to recruit him to fight Captain America, or at all. And then he had. Peter had hoped, but never expected, Tony Stark to need him again. And then he had. Peter had never expected Tony Stark to seek out his company. And then he had, even if it took a Vulture incident to get there. He never expected to grow close to his hero. But he had. He never expected his mentor to be his father figure. But he was. And oh god it was freaking Peter out.

He was so, so scared that if he slipped up and revealed how he felt Tony would try and distance himself. Peter didn’t think he could deal with losing Tony. Not when he was so happy. He knew disaster tended to strike when he was happy but he couldn’t help himself. May was good. She was safe. At school he had Ned and MJ, which was more friends than he could ever remember having. Sometimes it even felt like he had the whole Decathlon team (minus Flash) as friends. And he had his second family in Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Vision and Happy who were all so nice and protective, even Happy – he was convinced. 

There was only one way to keep this happiness and that was to not slip up. Should be easy enough. He managed to keep Spider-Man secret after all.

\---

In retrospect, this was probably because he had been in such a good mood. This was a prime example of Parker Luck. He was on top of the world one minute and the next he was having his head smashed into a brick wall. By a flying robot.

This was just how he had wanted to spend his Thursday afternoon. Really.

He groaned.

He aimed his wrist at the building across the road and shot a web. Just quicker than the weird clawed robot thing could bring his arm down, Peter jolted into the air and swung away. Swinging on his webs was generally a relief. An enjoyable one. He’d forgotten how much it hurt when your head was pounding. He landed roughly on the building but his conveniently sticky feet managed to attach themselves to the wall. He decided to wait there, hoping his need to puke would pass.

“You are experiencing extreme dizziness and nausea, Peter. Should I alert Mr. Stark?” Karen’s voice interrupted his rest.

“What? No. No. No, don’t call Mr. Stark. It’s only a robot. I can fight robots…”

A scream. Peter looked up, eyes narrowing, and followed the sound. The robot was heading towards a young child and his parents were watching worriedly from the sideline. If it was in his nature Peter would be annoyed that the people he had evacuated had stayed so close to the scene. Instead, he shot a web.

He managed to get the robot right in the middle of its rounded back and he began to pull it away from the child and towards himself. The robot made sounds of indignation as Peter tugged it towards him. He brought his hand down with as much strength as he could and smashed the robot into the ground. He repeated this a few more times and he let the robot stay on the ground, quickly covering it in webbing so it would stay put. He shot one long web towards it, hitting just between its eyes.

“Activate Taser Webs.”

Electricity surged through the webbing and the robot on the receiving end began to shake. Peter and onlookers watched as the robots lit up eyes began to blink out. It wasn’t long before the robot was on the ground.

“Sorry, Metal guy, but you picked the wrong day to attack the city.”

Peter quickly shot some webs over the circular body of the robot for extra precaution. He smiled, he almost felt a bit smug – this showed the robot not to mess with him just because he was finally happy. And then he was screaming as he flew through the air and smashed into the ground shoulder first. His hand flew to his shoulder and he let out a small cry of pain.

“Your shoulder is dislocated, Peter. Should I alert Mr. Stark now?”

“NO! Uh… yes. Alright.”

Peter really should have seen it coming that the taser webs had just annoyed the robot and not gotten rid of him. And he really should have seen it coming that the robot with knife-like arms could cut through the webbing. But he had no reason to see the energy blast that had thrown him through the air coming, for the simple reason the robot hadn’t shot energy waves at any prior stage of their fight.

“I’m really starting to hate you, Metal guy.”

Peter stood up slower than he would have liked and found the robot closer than he would have liked. Holding out his hand he sent a quick succession of Web Grenades at robot. When he dropped his arm down the robot was about ten metres back from where it had been and if robots could look angry, well this was an angry robot.

“Pro Tip: don’t make the enemy angrier than it already is.”

“M…Mr. Stark I, uh, didn’t see you coming.” Peter said looking at his mentor in surprise. He knew Karen had alerted him, but for him to actually come? Wasn’t expected.

“Come on, kid. We got some metal arse to kick.”

\---

“I think I like the robots we build better.”

“Definitely. But stop trying to ignore the fact that your shoulder is dislocated. You’re coming back to the compound with me and getting that fixed.”

“What no. No, no if you just pop it back into place then it will heal by itself.”

Tony set a stern glare on Peter. The kid’s lack of self-preservation was going to be the death of him. “It’s no big deal, Pete. You were already coming to the compound for the weekend, you can come a day early. I’ll talk to May and Happy can pick up your bags and drop you to school tomorrow. Now how does your head feel, I know you took a pretty big hit before I arrived.”

“It feels fine, thanks Da…” Peter caught himself just before he regretted what he would say. He could only hope that Tony hadn’t noticed it, or the way Peter froze up slightly, “ay. Thanks day. I mean today. Yeah, um, thanks, thanks for today. For coming and helping and all.”

Tony looked thoroughly confused, “You sure your head’s okay?”


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter almost calls Tony dad. Again.

Peter grinned slightly as he prodded his lunch and listened to Ned babbling beside him, “It’s just so cool! I mean you get to hang out with Iron Man, and War Machine and Vision a-”

“And Pepper Potts,” MJ cut in, “it’s a pretty cool sounding internship.”

Peter looked at MJ, slightly wide eyed in shock, until Ned nudged him.

“Uh, yeah,” he spluttered. “Yeah, yeah its, uh, great.”

MJ smirked, and Peter was once again struck by the feeling that she knew exactly what he was hiding. He turned to Ned and mouthed for him to shut up about. As excited as he was about getting to go to the compound for the weekend, even if he did go every other weekend, he would prefer that the whole school didn’t find out he was Spider-Man. And it would be pretty hard to pass off going to the Avengers facility every weekend if he was just an intern.

Luckily Ned complied, quickly changing the topic to the Lego Millennium Falcon he’d just bought. The two boys spent the rest of lunch discussing the Lego set and when they could meet up to build it.

The lunch bell sounded and Ned and Peter headed to their lockers and then to class.  
Their last classes of the day were predictably boring. Peter tapped his pencil against the table, staring at the clock and willing it to go faster. The end of Friday’s school hours were probably the worst for him because waiting to go to the compound was so treacherous. He loved being there, it was so much better than school, yet he was stuck at school and not the compound.

It didn’t matter how often he went, he knew he would always wait in anticipation to go again. He loved telling Happy all about his day and everything else he could think of even though Happy rolled his eyes and told him to be quiet. Because, he loved the fond look Happy got sometimes when he thought Peter wasn’t looking, and he was fairly sure Happy knew that he knew about it.

He loved having silly conversations with Vision, because the AI was still all serious exterior and very scientific speech, but Peter had discovered that he also had a wide knowledge of pop culture because Jarvis had been connected to all internets everywhere. There wasn’t much that was more amusing than Vision having a heated discussion about a meme.

He loved talking to Pepper, she was so nice to him and they could have conversations about anything, ranging from food to Stark Industries next big move, and still laugh the whole way through.

He loved playing games with Rhodey, they played a lot of card and board games and Rhodey regaled him with embarrassing stories about Tony while they played. They were fairly evenly matched in most games they played and the stories never failed to amuse him. Of course when he learnt of Rhodey’s storytelling Mr. Stark had started to tell Rhodey about embarrassing things Peter had done.

But most of all, he loved spending time with Tony. It didn’t matter what they were doing, he enjoyed all of it. Working in the labs, talking over meals, fighting crime, watching movies, anything they did together was fantastic. Tony was fantastic. He was a great mentor, a great hero, a great scientist, a great… dad. Peter really wished he was brave enough to tell Mr. Stark how much he meant to him.

In theory it seemed easy, all he had to do was tell Mr. Stark he was a great father figure. Everything seemed easier in theory. In reality, all his parental figures left him, not on purpose, he knew that, but they still left. He was already paranoid that May would somehow leave. Part of him knew that it wouldn’t happen, but there was still a voice in his head screaming about how everyone left.

That was why he had to protect May. It was why he couldn’t tell Tony. Peter had convinced himself that Tony would leave if he knew the truth, because Tony was an incredible, important person, and Peter was just Peter. And while he knew Tony did care about him more than just him being Spider-Man, he didn’t deserve to have to worry about Peter. Plus, Peter knew how Tony didn’t like getting close to people, he saw examples of it time to time around Stark Industries, he heard examples of it in Rhodey’s stories. So he knew that Mr. Stark would try to distance himself from Peter.

Peter knew all this because he was ridiculously naïve and oblivious.

\---

Happy wasn’t quite sure how he had ended up doing school pick up for a teenager every few Fridays. He wasn’t quite sure how he had warmed up to said teenager either, but he was a really good kid.

Happy always parked on a street that was a block away from the school. Peter had told him that he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. Peter had also said that he liked the walk, but Happy was pretty sure only the first reason was true.

He tapped his foot against the floor of the car and hummed quietly. Just as it was getting to too long for Peter to be arriving the back door opened and a backpack was chucked in. Then the teenager who owned the bag piled into the backseat and grinned sheepishly. Happy prepared himself for the onslaught of chatter.

“I’m so sorry I’m late. MJ caught me in the hall as I was leaving and then she held me up because she was giving me some stuff to study for decathlon and yeah, that took a bit of time.”

“Hello to you too kid,” Happy replied amusedly.

“Hey! This weekend’s going to be so good. I mean I’ll miss May, but she really deserves the break and the quality time with her friends and I get to go to the compound, which is awesome and I’ve got so much do,” Peter seemed particularly giddy today as he blabbered adorably.

Happy pulled out of the spot he was parked and began the drive upstate. He waited patiently, knowing Peter had more to say.

“School was alright today, Flash didn’t bother me at all, but I think MJ might know I’m Spider-Man. Oh and Ned got a new Lego Millennium Falcon and we’re going to build it on Wednesday afternoon when I go to his place. It’s like 4000 pieces to. Do you know if Rhodey’s at the compound? He said he had a really good story for this weekend, apparently it’s one of his favourite Tony moments! And I want to ask Pepper for some help with some Business homework, and I got to ask her a question about Stark Industries because MJ wants a quote from her for an assignment. Oh and I had some really good ideas about some changes we could make to my suit and I can’t wait to tell Dad because it’s going to be so awesome. And we’re making pizza for tonight and hopefully we’ll make enough for tomo-”

Peter’s enthusiastic chatter came to a stop. He looked up in the rear-view mirror and saw Happy’s look of thorough amusement. It was like his brain had short circuited when he realised what he had said. Happy watched as he gaped like fish and went a bit pale.

“I didn’t say that!”

“Oh, but you did,” Happy replied, trying very hard not to laugh.

“I didn’t. I did not! You can’t tell him. Please?” Peter began to plead.

Happy rolled his eyes and hit a button, causing the window to rise up and separate the front of the car from the front.

He would definitely be savouring the look on the kid’s face for some time. When the barrier completely closed and he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

Peter seemed to be the only one who didn’t notice how much Tony cared about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention that 'almost' means sometimes Tony isn't there to hear it? No? Well now you know...  
> Also, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who read, commented and left kudos on Chapter 1! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.


	3. 3

Peter woke up on Saturday morning feeling extremely happy. He still had two days at the compound but in the one afternoon he’d already spent he had done most of what he had wanted to. He’d seen Pepper almost as soon as he had arrived and with her help he had already finished his most of his homework. And he’d gotten a quote for MJ. Then he, Rhodey and Tony had made pizza for dinner and there was still plenty left for tonight. Plus, after dinner he’d beaten Rhodey at Monopoly and heard a great story about Tony blowing off a teacher’s eyebrows and getting forced to clean up as part of his punishment. Apparently Tony was not good at cleaning up. Who would’ve guessed?

So really, he thought as he got out of bed, all he had left to do was work on his suit with Mr. Stark. And that was going to be awesome. He had heaps for new web combinations and also wanted to experiment on making the web fluid more waterproof. Peter figured these would take at least all day, and he was fine with that. It was a perfect combination of Spider-Man duties and spending time with Mr. Stark.

Not that he needed excuses to hang out with Mr. Stark, but he didn’t want to sound needy. Still, he got ready faster than he normally would have and rushed out of his room with his sweater only halfway over his head. He finally pulled it down and had to take a large step to dodge a robot that whizzed by, but that caused him to lose his footing and suddenly he was a pile on the floor.

“I’m fine,” he called out, even though there was no one close by to hear him.

“That’s good to know Peter,” Friday replied. So maybe there was someone to hear him. And maybe if that someone had been able to laugh they would be. Peter’s face grew red.

He pulled himself up and walked quickly through the pristine hallways until he made it to the kitchen. Peter liked to have big breakfasts, being that it was the most important meal of the day and all. He also liked to have a lot of sugar with breakfast, but that was because it kept him awake. As he moved to look through the cupboards he noticed to plates of pancakes on the table. One plate was stacked about as high as a plate could be and the other had four or five pancakes on it. Each plate was covered in cling wrap and had a sticky note on it. One said ‘Peter’ and the other said ‘Tony’. Both said ‘From Rhodey’. Peter grinned, he loved Rhodey’s pancakes. His hand hovered over his and he was pleased to find that it was still warm.

“Hey, Fri? Where’s Mr. Stark?” If he was still asleep in his room Peter would leave it, but if he was elsewhere than maybe they could have breakfast together.

“Boss is in his lab.” The AI replied.

Peter frowned, “Already?” It was only nine in the morning. But maybe that was only early because he liked to sleep in. Oh well, Peter picked up both plates and headed towards the elevator. Mr. Stark didn’t always like eating in the lab, but Peter felt confident he could get away with it.

Upon arriving at the lab Peter ran into some trouble. As it turned out it was quite hard to hold a plate in both hands and scan his Stark ID card. His boss must have noticed him jumping around, or heard him slam into the wall (at least he saved the pancakes!), or perhaps both, because before he got the chance to open the door it was opened for him.

He walked in, rather red in the face, and took a seat across from Tony. The lab was a bit messy, but Peter noticed that there was no equipment out. However, there was a large stack of papers in front of Tony. The writing on them was tiny and it looked very important. He noticed the government insignia in the bottom corner of the form and frowned. Maybe he had come at a bad time.

“I… uh, I thought maybe we could have breakfast together. But um, you’re busy, so…” Peter stammered, suddenly very embarrassed at having come down without permission. He stood to leave.

Mr. Stark looked up at him with tired eyes and his expression softened. “Sit down, kid. I could do with some company.”

Peter sat back down and eyed Tony. He placed the pancakes in front of Tony. The mechanic unwrapped the pancakes and ate them slowly, Peter got the feeling he was only eating them because Peter was there.

“We might have some more company at the compound soon.”

Peter tensed up slightly. He didn’t want more company, he liked everything the way it was. That meant the government documents Tony was looking at were probably about the Accords or the Rogues. Peter didn’t want the Rogues to come back, they had hurt Tony. And he didn’t like when people hurt Tony, or Rhodey, or Vision, or Pepper, or Happy. And he knew that the Leipzig fight had hurt all of them. They hadn’t told him, but he could tell.

Rhodey had to wear leg braces to walk around. His face darkened whenever someone blamed Tony for the events. Peter’s pretty sure Rhodey hates General Ross more than anyone else does, except Tony, and he still faces him every day, because Rhodey is a hero.

Vision hates to talk about anything that happened in Germany. Peter saw him start malfunctioning when the conversation came up, but he’s pretty sure Vision faked that. Vision hates to talk about Scarlet Witch and he doesn’t go to the parts of the compound where the Rogues bedrooms are supposed to be. Vision blames himself for Rhodey’s injury.

Peter didn’t meet Pepper until much later, and when he did she looked like she was about to cry and she was talking to Tony about Siberia. He wasn’t supposed to be there for that conversation, but he was. And he sees fire in Pepper’s eyes whenever someone mentions the Rogues. He watched Pepper pull Tony and Stark Industries back together.

Happy’s job became a lot harder after the Accords. Suddenly he was protecting Tony from masses of people who were angry about Captain America being a criminal. He was working harder than ever to keep everyone who worked with Stark Industries safe. Peter never saw Happy complain about it.

And then there was Tony, the man who had always been Peter’s hero. Who was even more of a hero in his eyes now that Peter properly knew him. Tony hadn’t told Peter what happened in Siberia, hell, he hadn’t even told Peter the full reason he was taken to Berlin. But Peter had seen Tony in the aftermath, he had seen someone so broken. Someone who only blamed themselves. And maybe he had stumbled upon Tony’s wrecked armour after Siberia, but Peter had already come to the conclusion that Tony was hurt more than he would let on.

These, Peter assumed, were the reasons behind why Tony looked so concerned about the papers in front of him. Why Tony sounded so dull and conflicted when he told Peter about the ‘company’. Why he wanted Peter to stay and distract him.

He met Tony’s eyes and gave a weak grin. He was at a loss for words.

Tony clapped his hands together, effectively breaking the silence and Peter’s train of thought.

“So,” Tony started, “Happy told me that you had some ideas for your suit.”

Oh no, oh no, oh no. He remembered his conversation with Happy. He did not need to put that on Mr. Stark’s mind too.

“Happy didn’t, uh, say anything else?”

“Should he have?” Tony asked.

“No Da…” Come on Peter, you idiot, you almost did it again, this is how the problem started, he scolded himself. “No, definitely not. Nope, it’s just yesterday I almost...” Wow, Peter was bad at this lying business. That’s probably how MJ figured it out he was Spider-Man.

“You almost what, kiddo?”

“Got in trouble with a teacher. Not badly. And I mean, I got out of it, so you know…”

That sounded believable, right? Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Could new characters appear soon? Perhaps next chapter...


	4. 4

Peter was in class enjoying his Friday, okay not enjoying – it was still school – but not hating either. He had no plans for the weekend and hardly any homework, and so he was deciding whether he should fight crime all weekend or watch as many Star Wars movies as he could. Maybe he would watch some Star Wars in between being Spider-Man. That seemed like a good compromise.

Then Mr. Stark sent him a text that sent all his plans out the window. It said:

_Happy’s picking you up Spider-Kid. You’ll stay the weekend, there’s someone visiting I think you’ll like._

It must be someone important, considering this wasn’t a compound weekend.

_Did May give this the okay?_

Part of him dreaded it would be Captain America and his team of criminals. But surely Tony couldn’t think he’d like to meet them. He thought he’d made it pretty clear he didn’t.

_Yes. I wouldn’t make decisions without her agreement kiddo._

Well that settles it. There won’t be any Star Wars this weekend, and minimal Spider-Manning. There would however be plenty of time to spend with Tony. And that definitely made up for it.

\---

Happy dropped Peter off at the compound with the instructions to head to his room and freshen up and then head to the conference room, which is where Tony and the mystery guest would be.

Peter did just that, he dumped his school things in his room, pulled his books out of his backpack and piled them on his desk and then he headed for the conference room. It took him ten minutes to get there, but he liked to think that was because the building was so big and not because he walked slowly.

He opened the door and heard Tony’s voice immediately.

“Ah, here he is, my young protégée, Peter Parker.” Tony threw an arm around his shoulder and turned him in the direction of the only other people in the room.

There, around the corner of the table, stood Pepper Potts and another man who looked rather important, he stood tall and wore unfamiliar clothing, but his face was very familiar. Peter figured it out just as Tony announced who the guest was.

“Pete, this is King T’Challa, he’s here to discuss the new Accords.”

Peter internally cringed at the thing about the Accords. And then he remembered what really mattered right now was that he was meeting T’Challa. The king of Wakanda. The Black Panther. This was awesome.

“Uh… Hello Mr. King T’Challa Your Highness Black Panther Sir, it’s really nice to meet you, yeah… um,” Peter smiled, unable to think of anything else to say and very red in the face. Why did he always embarrass himself in front of cool people?

T’Challa chuckled lightly, and said to Tony, “He is very familiar, I feel as though I met him.”

“I’m, ah, Sp-Spider-Man, I kinda fought with you in Germany, Mr. King T’Challa Your Highness Black Panther Sir, I mean I wasn’t that important or anything but…”

“I remember you,” T’Challa said warmly, bringing Peter’s ramblings to a stop.

“Cool,” Peter mumbled, his awe leaked through the statement.

“He’s also terrible at keeping secrets. You’ll have to excuse him.” Tony gave Peter a significant look.

“Ah, well please call me T’Challa,” the king said.

“Sure King T’Challa, sir.”

Pepper and T’Challa both laughed warmly at this and Tony shook his head. “T’Challa’s younger sister is in the lab downstairs and I think you’ll like her. Why don’t you go see what she’s up to.”

Peter nodded and quickly headed away, his last image of the room rather amusing, three people crowded around a conference table that could probably seat fifty.

He headed down to the labs, which probably took another ten minutes and he was halfway there when he realised he hadn’t asked which lab she was in. As soon as he arrived he found out he needn’t have worried as the lab at the end of the hall had music blasting inside, which could probably be heard even with the door closed and could definitely be heard with Peter’s super senses. He headed down the hall, and he was glad she had picked this lab because he rather liked it. It wasn’t Tony’s personal lab, which in turn had most of Peter’s things in it, and it wasn’t the biggest, but it was definitely Tony’s second favourite and Dum-E and U would often head to this lab when Tony wasn’t in his. He couldn’t figure out why everyone liked this lab, but he knew they definitely did.

As soon as he opened the door and stepped in his Spidey senses went crazy, and he fell back out of the door in his rush to stumble out.

He heard giggling from the room and he tilted his head up, met by a girl about his age who was lowering her hand that was covered in some gauntlet-like weapon. She pulled them off and placed them on the table and then walked over and offered her hand. He took the offer and she pulled him up easily and quickly turned her grip in to a mock serious handshake.

“I’m Shuri, don’t scare me like that. Who are you?” The girl said.

“I’m Peter. I, uh, sorry Miss Princess Shuri Your Highness Ma’am.” He stuttered.

Shuri began to laugh and Peter cringed. Great job, two people in one day. And this wasn’t even a record.

“How about you never call me that again, Peter. I prefer Shuri. What do you do here?” She said, but Peter could tell she wasn’t really angry because she was still giggling.

“I’m, well I’m kind Mr. Stark’s intern. Like a personal intern, because I’m allowed in these labs and we talk a lot and yeah, his like my da- mentor. He helps a lot and doesn’t like when I’m stupid or get injured and I guess I don’t actually do that much work, but I’m definitely allowed to be here. I promise.”

Shuri grinned, she had of course heard about Peter when her and her brother arrived and Stark talked about how he was coming, and she had picked up on what he almost said before he corrected himself, but this was quite amusing. “Sounds like he’s a bit of dad for you. Father figure-y…” She said.

“He’s not a father figure. If anything, he’s a bother figure, because he’s always bothering me.” Peter began to chastise himself again, that was just plain uncool.

“Did you just quote Brooklyn Nine-Nine?”

\---

Hours later T’Challa and Tony were finished all the work they had planned to get done that day and Pepper had finished helping them, or supervising as she liked to call it. The three adults headed to the lab, they had planned to order dinner for themselves, Peter and Shuri, but when they arrived where they thought the children would be there was no one there.

Tony began to lead them to the only other place where the two could be, the lounge room. When they arrived Brooklyn Nine-Nine was playing in the background of two teenagers fighting with what looked like very high quality lightsabers. Peter and Shuri were trading blows and they seemed to be debating what the plural of yeet was. Tony sighed, Pepper smiled and T’Challa shook his head. Why did they have to be so similar?

\---

Three adults and two teenagers ate pizza for dinner and talked about every topic that wasn’t superhero related. It was a nice night, spare the time Tony choked on his drink the first time Shuri called Peter ‘Baby Stark’. Pepper had laughed and T’Challa looked confused. Peter had just gone red, like he had every time she’d called him that so far.

It soon became apparent to the adults this was her favourite nickname for Peter. They didn’t ask why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone supporting this story!


	5. 5

Peter sighed. Although it was midday and the sun shone through his window he had no will to get out of bed. He was upset. This weekend was supposed to be a compound weekend. The weekend a fortnight ago was supposed to be a compound weekend, yet both weekends he’d stayed at his apartment. He’d had Ned over the first weekend but this weekend he was alone, since May was at work.

It was over a month since he’d been to the compound. He’d gone two weekends in a row then, the weekend when he’d met T’Challa and Shuri and the weekend after. He hadn’t been since. And it really sucked.

Peter had still seen Happy and Tony since then, Tony had actually come to his apartment last weekend and he’d visited multiple afternoons. Pepper had come twice as well. He’d even been keeping contact with Shuri, not that he would have seen her in the compound, but whatever. But Peter hadn’t seen Rhodey or Vision the whole time, and he missed them. He pulled his blanket over his head, this was all Captain America’s fault.

\---

When May Parker arrived home at 2pm it was painfully obvious that her child had not left his room all day. There was no sign that the kitchen had been used. All the DVDs, comics and Lego sets that often found themselves around the television were absent. And his door was closed. Unless he had left through his window to go Spider-Manning, which she doubted considering the mood he’d been in last night. It had actually reached the stage where she was angry at Steve Rogers and his gang of misfits. No one upset her son like this.

The first weekend had been alright, Peter had been resigned but understanding. He complained a bit, which is still more than he normally would, but he had put on a smile whenever May was around. Ned had stayed over that whole weekend. They had managed to watch the whole entire season of some show May didn’t really pay attention to in one day. Both Ned and May avoided saying anything about the compound. They didn’t watch the news all weekend because they knew it would only be about four rogue heroes. Peter had stayed out later than normal when he went out as Spider-Man that weekend.

This weekend hadn’t been so good. Peter still didn’t complain, but he was mopey and stayed in his room all of Friday and all of Saturday so far. Spider-Man hadn’t made an appearance all weekend. May didn’t like it.

It also upset her that Tony and Pepper and everyone else was clearly unhappy. They were the only two she had seen since Peter had had to put his fortnightly compound weekend on hold. And boy were they angry. Tony’s level of discomfort at the situation reminded her of a time when she spent her day yelling about how horrible and irresponsible he was. That was some time ago though, as the two adults had grown on each other.

“Peter come eat something,” she shouted.

“No thanks,” came the quiet reply.

“Right now.”

She heard quite a bit of grumbling and then light footsteps began to pad towards the closed door. She smiled softly and then bit back a laugh when Peter emerged from his room with all his blankets wrapped around himself. He gave May a quick hug and then trudged past her and began to make a sandwich. May headed off to her room to clean up.

Peter was well into his third sandwich when May emerged from her room and he must have looked rather gloomy because she walked over and pressed down his hair then placed a kiss on his head.

“You know he wants you there Peter. You haven’t done anything wrong, he just doesn’t want you to meet the rogue Avengers,” May whispered to him.

Peter frowned, “I don’t want to meet them either. I… I guess I just still want to spend time with everyone at the compound. Rhodey, Vision, Happy, Pepper and da-Tony. It’s weird not be there.”

May smiled at him and carded her hand through his hair for comfort. She ignored his little slip up, she’d noticed it a bit lately but it was clearly not something he wanted to talk about. Peter, still curled up in his blankets, leaned into her. May thought he might have fallen asleep again before he got up to put his plate away.

The silence was not uncomfortable, but there was something about it. Perhaps it was tense, in the way that it felt like it was building something up. Something big.

Peter turned back to his aunt, looked at her with large brown eyes and a small smile and very quietly said, “I love you more than anyone else you know? I… I always will.”

May smiled and let out a bit of a watery laugh, “I know Pete. But you’re allowed to love more than one person, so what’s up?”

Peter remained silent for some time, like he didn’t know what to say. He looked upset and confused. He sighed. “Would it upset… would it upset you if I called Mr. Stark dad? Because I don’t call you mum, and I mean you’re obviously my motherly figure, but you once asked me not to call you mum, which I totally understand by the way, but I thought maybe you might think it’s weird if I called Mr. Stark dad, but he’s like a… like a father figure, you know? And I mean I probably won’t even call him that because it’s totally weird and-”

“And you’re rambling,” May cut off his speech and walked over to him. She pressed a kiss to his forehead and then met his eyes, “I think that’s a conversation you need to have with the man himself, and no it wouldn’t bother me. I promise.”

Peter smiled. He pulled her into a tight hug and wrapped the both of them in his blankets. May hugged him back even more fiercely, which was rather impressive considering the boy’s strength. Peter pulled away and trudged back to his room.

Of course he was sulking again. She was still getting used to how quickly his mood could change. She shook her head, teenagers honestly.

“I love you most too,” she called out to his closed door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some May and Peter fluff for everyone, because I love them both and May is very important to Peter too, so I think she deserves some time in the spotlight.  
> Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this work so far by commenting, reading and leaving kudos on it. I appreciate it so much!  
> Also I apologise this chapter took so long to get up!


	6. +1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter finally calls Tony dad (kind of...)

This was the most colourful the gym had ever been. There was posters hanging up all over the walls, the bleachers were filled with people in every type of clothing, small benches lined up in a u-shape, they were covered by coloured cardboard sheets and all sort of weird and wacky science experiments, students and parents stood around every section of each table and right up the front of it all was a large stage. On the stage was a row of seats that teachers had made themselves comfortable in, a lectern in the centre and a small table with a large gold, somewhat fake looking trophy on it.

Peter was lucky enough to have his display directly across the gym from Flash, and as a result he could easily see Flash’s pompous expression and the sneer he continuously threw Peter as he put an arm around both his parents. Peter sighed and rolled his eyes. He knew Flash was just trying to get on his nerves and normally he wouldn’t let it bother him, but he was already kind of upset because May had been called into work last minute and couldn’t attend. A quick survey of the room when he’d first arrived had let Peter know that he was the only student there without a parent, guardian or older sibling standing by their side for the exhibition. So yeah, Flash was annoying him more than normal.

Even though it was Wednesday there was no classes for the whole day. It was entirely devoted to the science fair. The gym had even been opened to the public so every person in Queens who held any interest in science and technology could be found there.

It wasn’t like Peter needed a second person for his presentation to work, it was just a robot that danced differently to every song that was played. It was kind of weird and Peter wasn’t entirely happy with it. It definitely wasn’t his best creation ever but he’d procrastinated until two days earlier and only had one afternoon to work in the labs at the compound. He’d been so excited when Mr. Stark invited him, it had been so long since the last compound weekend, but then it turned out Tony wasn’t there since the whole team was on a mission. He had only seen Rhodey.

It had been kind of convenient though, it meant he had the whole lab to himself and Mr. Stark wouldn’t get curious as to what he was making. He was sure that if Mr. Stark had asked he would have been too tempted to invite him today, but he didn’t want to sound needy and he was fairly sure the man would be busy anyway.

“Ignore him.”

Peter knew immediately Ned was talking to him. He turned and gave his friend a smile. Ned was standing with a computer which he’d given a voice and a very complex coding system to, and his father. When he turned back to look forwards he realised it wasn’t just Flash, many strangers and other parents around the room were giving him pitying looks when they thought he couldn’t see them.

Peter sighed, they were only thirty minutes in – how would he survive the day?

Three minutes later, in which he’d received at least five more sad looks, his Spidey sense went off. He passed it off as nothing since the room was full of exploding experiments. Then he saw Flash’s jaw drop, and then other students started to go wide eyed and make shocked expressions. He turned around expecting to find trouble, but instead came face to face Tony Stark. He blinked. Tony Stark was still there. At Peter Parker’s science fair. He was fairly sure his brain had just short circuited.

“Hey kid.”

“Mr. Stark you… I mean… what?”

“Sorry I’m late,” he announced, loud enough for surrounding people to hear. He clapped a hand on Peter’s shoulder and moved to stand next to him and much more quietly, so just Peter could hear, said, “I’m a little offended you didn’t invite me. But luckily May was on the case and gave me a call about all this.”

Peter stared at him. Then he slowly opened his mouth and closed it again. He could feel the eyes of many people on him, or rather on Tony. He could still see Flash’s wide open jaw. “I didn’t think you’d want to come,” he explained.

Tony raised an eyebrow, but quickly smiled at him, “I’d go wherever to spend time with you.”

Tony dutifully stayed by Peter’s side for the rest of the day, talking to only Peter, Ned and Ned’s father. He ignored any and all whispers about ‘Tony Stark’ and made sure the day was entirely for Peter. If someone came and asked about him, his work, or why he was there, he began to talk about how amazing Peter’s robot was until they agreed, listened or left.

When it came time for the winner to be announced Peter turned to Tony and said, “I don’t think I won.”

Tony smiled, “You should’ve brought the robot that fixes walls. Not that this one isn’t impressive.”

“I heard you needed that one to clean up after Captain America, so I left it at the compound,” Peter said with a smirk.

Tony let out a bark of laughter, “You spend too much time with Rhodey.”

The two geniuses only gave their concentration back to the award presentation when the name Ned Leeds was called out. Ned wore huge grin the whole way to stage and Peter was the last person in the gym left cheering for him.

\---

It was late afternoon when Peter and Tony walked out of the school. They walked in silence, which left Peter to wonder where they were going. He had figured Mr. Stark would just drop him home when the science fair ended. But as they walked through crowded streets it was easy to tell that they definitely weren’t heading towards his apartment.

Peter noticed that Mr. Stark was staring at him and realised the man was probably waiting for Peter to say something. He didn’t really know what to say though, he still hadn’t completely comprehended that Tony Stark had come to his school. For him. And yet, part of him thought it was kind of expected, thought that really he should have asked Tony and not waited for May to do it. In fact he was almost sure Tony would have said yes.

The only thing he was definitely sure of was that everyone would have questions about it tomorrow. For the first time ever Peter Parker would be the talk of the school. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Oh, and he was also sure he would not forget the look on Flash’s face anytime soon. Or ever.

Deciding that Mr. Stark was waiting for him to say something, Peter kicked a pebble and rather boldly (at least he felt it was bold) said, “I’m hungry.”

Mr. Stark laughed, but didn’t reply straight away. This was just enough time for Peter to get very worried. He’d said the wrong thing. He had one hundred percent said the wrong thing. Peter had screwed up a nice day.

And then he hadn’t.

“Hi Hungry, I’m Dad.”

Mr. Stark stopped walking. Peter’s jaw dropped. Nothing could have prepared him for that answer. He turned to look at his mentor, to try and read his emotions, but glasses covered his eyes. Before Peter could say anything Mr. Stark asked if he wanted ice cream. Peter nodded and they walked the rest of the way to a small ice cream shop that sat on the corner of the street.

Neither of them could figure out what to say, so instead both of them ordered and began to eat in silence. Peter ate quickly, he was giddy. He hadn’t even expected Tony to be there that day, and now the man – who he had been trying to avoid calling dad – had referred to himself as dad.

Suddenly he was laughing. And he couldn’t find it in himself to stop. This was all such a ridiculous situation.

Tony watched for the next minute as Peter struggled to settle down. When the young boy met his gaze with large, deep brown eyes, Tony raised a question eyebrow.

“I’ve been trying to avoid calling you dad for weeks,” Peter started, “Like actual weeks! And then you just solved the problem for me. You called yourself dad.”

“So I solved the problem by embarrassing myself?” Tony inquired, badly pretending to be upset.

“Better you than me,” Peter replied.

Tony grinned and ruffled his hair.

“Besides,” Peter whispered, “I don’t think it was embarrassing.”

Tony stared at him, “So it doesn’t bother you that I think of you as my kid?”

“Does it bother you that I think of you as my dad?”

\---

It was getting dark when the duo arrived at Peter’s apartment. In way of goodbye Peter threw his arms around Tony in a tight hug and mumbled:

“See you Dad.”

Neither Peter nor Tony stopped smiling for the rest of the day. Tony definitely didn’t tell Pepper about it at least seven times. Peter certainly didn’t tell Ned about it twelve times. Nope. Not at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! I hope you guys liked it and you look out for the next work in this series (although I'm not sure when I'll publish it).  
> I can't express how grateful I am to everyone who has supported this work. It took off way more than I ever expected it to! Thank you all so much!!!


End file.
